News

Cheese Production in Chile Rises

CHILE - Cheese production in Chile for 2013 is expected to reach 135,000 tonnes - an eight per cent increase over last year, according to the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service.

In 2012 milk consumption by industry and the processing sector increased 2.3 per cent in volume when compared to the previous year.

During the first seven months of 2013 we have seen an additional 1.5 per cent expansion in consumption and the industry projects it to further increase between 4 to 5 per cent for the whole year.

The domestic milk production is destined for various dairy products, from greatest to least importance: dry milk, cheese, fluid milk and yogurt.

In 2012, 40 per cent was used for dry milk and 41 per cent for cheese production. Cheese production has increased over 40 per cent from 2001 to 2012.

In 2013 alone cheese production has increased over 5 per cent when compared to the same period of 2012.

Per capita cheese consumption in Chile has increased from 5.6 Kgrs in 2004 to 8.5 Kgrs in 2012 and expected to increase to 9.5 Kgrs in 2013.

Cheese imports have also been growing during the last few years; they have expanded over 150 per cent since 2007.

The United States with 28 per cent of total imports is Chile’s second largest supplier of cheese after New Zealand with 37 per cent and followed by Argentina with 27 per cent during 2013 (January through October).

Back in 2007 Argentina was the largest supplier of cheese with over 52 per cent of total imports and the US supplied only 1.5 per cent of total imports. There were no imports from New Zealand in 2007.